Vortexx Network
Vortexx (stylized as VORTEXX) is an American digital broadcast network owned by Vortexx Entertainment Ventures, LLC. The channel primarily airs animated series aimed at male children ages 8 to 14 years. The Vortexx brand was formerly used for the Saturday morning animation block on The CW from 2012 to 2014, which was later suceeded by Litton Entertainment's One Magnificent Morning which later replaced by WB Kids and Revived of Toonzai and Vortexx. On January 30, 2017, Warner Bros. Television announced that it sent an application to the Federal Communications Commission for the new Vortexx channel. It launched on April 3, 2017. History Edit Pre-history (Vortexx block; 2012-2014) Edit On April 6, 2011, following a lawsuit involving the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, 4Kids Entertainment, which programmed the The CW4Kids/Toonzai block for the network, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On May 1, 2012, Kidsco Media Ventures, an affiliate of Saban Capital Group, placed a bid to acquire some of 4Kids' assets. On June 26, 2012, after competition from 4K Acquisition Corp, a subsidiary of Konami, the deal was finalized, with 4K Acquisition receiving the U.S. rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and Saban receiving all other assets, including the programming rights to The CW's Saturday morning block. On July 2, 2012, it was announced that Saban Brands, via Kidsco Media Ventures, would begin programming the block that fall. On July 12, 2012, it was announced that the block would be named Vortexx, which launched on August 25, 2012. On May 31, 2014, The CW announced that Vortexx would be discontinued and replaced on October 4, 2014 by One Magnificent Morning, a block produced by Litton Entertainment that would feature live-action documentary and lifestyle programs aimed at pre-teens and teenagers, similarly to a block also introduced by Litton for CW co-owner CBS the previous year. The move came as part of a shift by broadcast television networks towards using their Saturday morning lineup solely to comply with the educational programming requirements mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), along with the cultural shift towards cable and online video on demand viewing of children's and animated programming. The Vortexx program block aired for the last time on September 27, 2014; it was the last Saturday morning block across the major American broadcast television networks that primarily featured non-educational programming aimed at children until WB Kids begin it run in 2019. When news of Vortexx's discontinuation was spreading, many fans of the former CW Saturday morning block dubbed it the "End of Saturday Morning Cartoons". Various petitions and protests were made to Saban Capital Group to relaunch Vortexx as a new 24-hour standalone television network, but many were turned down and rejected. On January 30, 2017, the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television (along with its animation arm Warner Bros. Animation and its other division DC Entertainment) announced that it had formed a joint partnership with Saban Capital Group to relaunch the Vortexx brand as a standalone 24-hour network. Under the arrangement, Saban Brands would be in charge of handling advertising sales and distribution,